Sausages & Suds Sportsman/Executive Chef Ted Prater Makes Banger’s an Austin Original Article and photos by Steve Lightfoot
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immy Dean did not invent sausage and only made a handful of varieties, none very remarkable. But, he made a lot of sausage and to his credit Dean was born in Texas, had a really cool song, “Big Bad John,” and parlayed his name brand to become a breakfast sausage mogul. The Art of Sausage-making actually dates to ancient times; the Babylonians were stuffing them in 1500BC. Sausage was born of necessity since refrigeration, and electricity for that matter, had yet to be invented and any meat left uncooked for a few days was going to turn whether you wanted it to or not. The process for preserving meats, Charcuterie as the French call it is something all sportsmen have firsthand knowledge of – we make deer jerky and sausages out of feral hog (or have a processor do it for us) and that makes us charcuteirs. Some of us are fairly good at it, while others, well, that’s why there are deer processing plants. Ted Prater is not from Texas, but like another Tennessean who told his compadres “You may all go to hell, I will go to Texas,” he made his way here. Unlike Davy Crockett, Prater’s legacy will not be as a Defender of the Alamo. Like Crockett, Prater is a hunter. Unlike Jimmy Dean, Prater is not from Texas and does not have a hit record that I know of (although he did spend some time in Nashville). Like Dean, Prater can make sausage. In fact, he’s pretty damn good at it! And, that’s a good thing for those who enjoy cased meats, since Prater makes and serves about a ton of the stuff on a weekly basis. Thirty different variet60
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Banger’s owner Ben Siegel enjoys a brew on the front porch.
Ted Prater shows off his products.
ies of sausages, from a classic smoked hot dog deserving of a spot in an All Star baseball game lineup to a freaky stuffed fusion of shrimp and bacon served atop grits and slathered in barbecue sauce. Forcemeat is his passion. Prater practices his craft as Executive Chef at Banger’s, a trendy sausage house and beer garden in Austin’s historic Rainey Street District. He found the job on, where else, Craigslist. The restaurant is just off I-35, sandwiched between Austin’s famed Sixth Street and Lady Bird Lake. You could reach either with a decent tee shot were it not for the large oaks and tall buildings. Banger’s is a renovated construction of the original bungalow houses built here in the early 1900s, and is surrounded by an eclectic mix of lounges and cocktail bars, bistros and food trailers set in shade cast by upscale downtown condos. Not exactly the place you’d expect to find a hard-core hunter and angler whose roots run in the backwoods and along the creeks of the Deep South; that is until you get to know the place and the people at Banger’s. He’s brought his Southern rais62
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BBQ, bacon and shrimp sausage with white cheddar grits.
The art of making sausage is the sexiest f’ng thing. ing with him and it fits here. About once a month, Prater fires up a collection of large outdoor custom-built cooking devices fashioned out of cinder block and iron grates and tin, and then works his country cooking magic on whole pigs and other meats. “If it has a face, I’ll cook it,” he claims. Blue smoke wafting from the cooking pits floats across the outdoor courtyard and is intoxicating. Live bluegrass music penetrates the smoke and a diverse crowd of Austin hipsters, old hippies, couples and business people sit elbow to elbow along rows of picnic tables. This is a happy place. “I started cooking at an early age and because I could skin a deer quicker than anybody else in camp, I got to be the cook,” said Prater as he lifts the corrugated tin cover of what he calls his “redneck smoker.” Sitting on the restaurant office porch working the sweet spot behind his young Springer spaniel, Emma Faye’s left ear, Prater smiles. He boasts Emma Faye is shaping up to be a helluva bird dog. A bit more training working to the right is all she needs before dove season. “I hunt and fish up around Georgetown,” he says. “I keep fishing poles out back here just in case. When I’m not hunting or fishing, I’m studying food. “The art of making sausage is the sexiest f’ng thing,” he says. “It’s the oldest art form for preserving meats. I’m an outdoorsman first and foremost and the ability to survive using skills to preserve meats is appealing to me.” The epicenter of Prater’s creations is tucked behind a row of sausage display cases at Banger’s. A workstation – shelves lined with Mason jars filled with various spices and concoctions, butcher block and knives, grinder, meat scale and walkin cooler. It all comes together in an art-
The stuff of which sausage is made at Banger’s.
Prater and his Springer Spaniel Emma Faye. september/october 2014
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Live bluegrass on stage at Banger’s.
ist’s canvas of sausage casing. “We experiment a lot with sausages, we play ‘What if…’ with different ingredients and combinations,” Prater explains. “We have your traditional sausages and we’re always trying to improve on the recipes, but also some unique ones. Like the smoked hot dog, I just revised the recipe. It’s good, really good. But, I know I can make it even better.” The resulting menu at Banger’s reflects both Prater’s dedication to producing the highest quality sausage meal, but also one that fits in with Austin’s palette. Staff at Banger’s making it happen in the kitchen.
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It’s a vision shared by Banger’s owner, Ben Siegel. Banger’s was created to fill what Siegel saw as a void in Austin’s plethora food community. Siegel had his degree in finance from UT and was working in commercial real estate in Dallas when a weekend visit to Austin with friends found him standing in a long line at a food trailer with a reputation for sausage. “If there is this much demand for sausage, then why are there no brick and mortar sausage houses in Austin?” he pondered. So, he built one.
Ted Prater makes about a ton of sausages per week at Banger’s.
beer, beer, beer and, What goes best With saUsage? beer! Ben Siegel has tapped into the brewpub arena of Austin lifestyle with gusto, creating the largest selection of craft beers on tap in Austin and the third largest in Texas – 104 distinctive brews flowing from numbered mesquite wood handle pulls along the back wall of Banger’s bar.
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o the uninitiated consumer, the beer options at Banger’s are overwhelming. Distinctive names like guadalupe Texas honey ale, Deep ellum Dallas Blonde and Devil’s Backbone Tripel give hints to their Texas origins, but the taps here also draw brews from around the world. There are 65 selections that rotate through quarterly and another 35 that could change out on a weekly basis. Banger’s has tapped more than 1,000 different beer varieties during its brief two-year history. To minimize the selection stress factor, Siegel has developed a two layer system. The first element is the beer menu, which is divided into beer taste characteristics most folks can identify with. The second is an educated wait staff. all servers at Banger’s must go through the Cicerone Beer Certification program; it’s the suds equivalent of wine connoisseur training. Banger’s beer committee decides what goes on the wall. The team maintains relationships with more than 40 craft breweries, including 20 in the austin area. These relationships guarantee Banger’s will be front and center when new seasonal and specialty beers roll out. Sorry, tryouts for the team are closed!
more than 100 specialty brews flow from numbered mesquite handle taps at Banger’s.
september/october 2014
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